REVIEW - JOHNNIE O. JACKSON ALL AMERICAN WORKOUT - THE NEXT LEVEL DVD!

Chest & Bis
Johnnie starts off by telling us about getting his pro card and his contest plans. He does 315 for five reps on the bench press then 405 for three reps and 315 for 10 faster reps. Next he does flat presses with dumbbells doing 100 pound dumbbells for 14 fast reps then the 150s for four reps. Johnnie does a good job explaining his routine throughout the DVD. He says he normally does three sets in the 10-15 rep range for this exercise. He does 120s for five reps nex and does another set with faster reps. Staying on the incline, Johnnie next hits the machine press where he says he sticks in the 15-20 rep range to get as much blood in the muscle as possible. This is an exercise he performs as a superset with the seated machine press. While Johnnie has exceptional strength and is a fantastic powerlifter as well as bodybuilder, he is not as strong as Ronnie Coleman as some have suggested.

Johnnie hits a couple more supersets with the incline machine press and the seated press before doing a set of dips without his shirt on. Johnnie's chest was looking thick and shredded as usual (definitely among the best in the history of bodybuilding). Johnnie supersets his dips with incline cable flyes. Johnnie's chest is up there with his back as being among his most impressive muscles. Johnnie is a good speaker, and continues to explain the reasoning behind his workouts throughout the DVD. Johnnie finishes his chest workout with more of the supersets.

For biceps, Johnnie starts off with straight bar curls using the olympic curl bar - he starts off with 135 pounds and says his ideal rep range is 10-15. He says he goes about a minute between sets before hitting it again. He then does 185 for 14 reps with lightning fast speed - Johnnie seems to train like this a lot and I'm surprised he hasn't come down with an injury or muscle tear yet. Johnnie then does 225 pounds for 12 reps! He has some incredible strength for a guy who is as compact as he is (relative to other bodybuilders he competes against in the big shows).

Next for biceps, Johnnie does EZ bar preacher curls for reps and hammer curls after that. Johnnie explains that his forearms are one of his weaker body parts so he trains them hard and heavy and says it isn't always pretty but definitely effective. Johnnie uses wrist wraps in a lot of his exercises, including hammer curls. He says this is to help to prevent him from injuring his wrists - great point, but if he's seeking to avoid injuries he should probably slow down on his form. To me, although no doubt effective, it looks like an injury waiting to happen.

Johnnie finishes up his biceps workout with seated alternate dumbbell curls.

Legs
Johnnie starts off his quads workout with leg extensions. Johnnie says that it's not his favourite day of the week, but you gotta do what you gotta do. He uses leg extensions to begin with to get some blood in his muscles. He recommends a good warmup before any workout. Johnnie performs his leg extensions one leg at a time, alternating his legs. Johnnie says he tries to perform 20 reps on each leg.

After Johnnie completes his leg extensions, he goes on to perform squats. He starts off with 135 pounds for reps then does 225 for 14 reps with his knee wraps. Johnnie said that during the offseason 225 would be very light for him but so close to the show, it is a working set. Johnnie then does 315 for 11 reps. Johnnie finishes up with 405 for seven reps before moving on to the leg press machine.

For leg presses, Johnnie starts off with five plates per side for reps where he pumps them off easily. He says he tries to bring his legs down to parallel on this exercise. He supersets his leg presses with lying leg curls in the 15-20 rep range and body weight sissy squats. What you will notice about Johnnie while watching this DVD is how incredible DENSE his muscles are. It's incredible how hard his physique is - truly impressive, and his hardness is obviously the result of his powerlifting training. Johnnie says he generally does three sets of the three set superset (!). Seems like an interesting workout. I might want to try it myself.

I think that picture says it all when it comes to Johnnie's physique!

Shoulders and Triceps
Johnnie starts off with seated military presses for his shoulders where he does 225 for 10 reps. He follows this up with machine military presses - He uses the inner handles to concentrate a little bit more on the front deltoids and does the exercise with the same explosive speed as all his other sets. Johnnie also does drop sets with the machine presses.

Johnnie next does upright rows which his says brings in good details to his shoulders and also works the traps. Johnnie goes up to 10 reps at 225 pounds for this exercise, using straps and once again with explosive speed.

Next Johnnie does side lateral raises superset with plate presses. I like this exercise personally. For front plate raises, you just grab a weight plate and raise it in front of you. You can also perform this exercise with the straight bar or with dumbbells. Johnnie hits a most muscular after one of his plate raise sets and as always, looks fantastic. Johnnie's physique is definitely among one of my favourites on the pro circuit today.

After his plate raises are complete, Johnnie does cable crossovers for his shoulders superset with reverse pec deck for rear delts. Johnnie is a big fan of supersets and watching his DVD, I was tempted to put them in my workout routines as well.

Johnnie says one of his goals in this work out is to chisel in detail.

After his shoulders workout is complete, Johnnie starts with triceps. He does pushdowns for a couple of warmup sets and then a few working sets in the 15-20 rep range.

Johnnie then hits skull crushers - also known as lying triceps extensions. It works on the long head of the triceps and he performs the exercise with 135 pounds. Johnnie then increases the weight to 165 pounds and does another set. He says it is important to warm up your elbows before lifting heavy weight on this exercise. Johnnie then does triceps kickbacks which he says is great for the stretch and squeeze and brings out details and cross striations to his triceps. I'm not sure if specific exercises can really do this, but Johnnie obviously knows what he's doing (the man has an excellent physique). Johnnie's triceps are as hard and as dense as the rest of him.

Johnnie does some triceps posing between sets.

After the kickbacks, Johnnie does cable rope extensions for his triceps. Johnnie says he does 15-20 reps of this exercise.

Posing
Johnnie hits some poses, two weeks out from the show:
Front Relaxed Pose.
Left Side Relaxed.
Rear Relaxed.
Right Relaxed.
Front Relaxed.
Hands Clasped Most Muscular.
Front Double Biceps.
Front Lat Spread.
Traditional Most Muscular.
Left Side Chest.
Left Side Triceps.
Back Double Biceps.
Rear Lat Spread.
Side Triceps (hit from the front).
Left Side Triceps.
Abdominals and Thighs.
Traditional Most Muscular (Crap).
Hands on Hips Most Muscular.
Front Lat Spread.
Hands Clasped Most Muscular.
Front Double Biceps.
Rear Posing.
Left Side Chest.
Left Side Relaxed.
Some Biceps Posing.
Front Most Muscular (hands clasped style).
Front Double Biceps.
Hands on Hips Most Muscular.
Hands Behind Back Most Muscular.
Left Side Chest.
More MISC Posing.

Back
Johnnie starts off his back workout with chinups (using straps). He works out wearing a muscletech shirt. He says he likes to use his own body weight to warm up his elbows and shoulders and get the blood flowing overall in his body. He says chinups are good to develop that v-taper that bodybuilders strive to achieve.

Next Johnnie hits bent over dumbbell rows (15-20 rep range with straps). He supersets his dumbbell rows with modified t-bar rows off the floor. Johnnie goes up to dumbbells over 100 pounds for the dumbbell rows and four plates on the t-bar.

Johnnie then does front lat pulldowns with the long bar to etch detail in his back and create the illusion of a small waist by widening his back.

After his sets of lat pulldowns, Johnnie does three sets of front pulldowns, where the bar is pulled straight down to his waist.

Johnnie follows up with seated cable rows and hyperextensions. Johnnie explains that bodybuilders are more prone to injury when they are holding less water (close to a show). It only makes sense that bodybuilders should be more careful at that time in the training season. Training with such ferocious intensity was probably what caused Dorian Yates to acquire so many injuries. Some would call him a hardcore trainer or an "Iron Warrior" and sure, he may have been, but that kind of training is not smart - regardless of whether you compete or not. You also don't need to put yourself in an injury risking position to become Mr. Olympia. Ronnie Coleman is obviously evidence of that.

Promo
The DVD ends with some promotional footage of Johnnie O. Jackson's first DVD. I have to say, both of Johnnie's DVDs were excellent - very instructional and informational. They are both pretty similar, but good to include in the collection. Johnnie has a classic physique and definitely knows a thing or two about building a world class body.

OVERALL REVIEW!
This DVD was extremely instructional and very informative. Johnnie O. Jackson is definitely a good public speaker and his vast training knowledge comes out clearly in this DVD. It is definitely worth the buy if you are interested in learning and also seeing Johnnie's excellent physique and feats of strength.